There were questions about the only three Raptors who actually mattered when the summer league season began and now that they’ve endured the spotty officiating and hectic schedule and escaped without anyone suffering any debilitating injury, there are questions that remain.

Summer league is more about getting through it with some teaching moments taken care of more than anything else and general manager Masai Ujiri is back in Toronto from Las Vegas pleased with what he saw while fully acknowledging there remains significant work to do.

Jonas Valanciunas had moments of domination against inferior competition en route to being named the league’s Most Valuable Player, Terrence Ross remains enigmatic with more potential than polish and Quincy Acy remains a delightfully hard-working tweener who may or may not have an NBA position.

It’s pretty much what the team’s brass and coaching staff expected when the Las Vegas vacation began two weeks ago.

Valanciunas was unquestionably the most pleasant surprise, he arrived bigger and stronger, more capable of adapting to the intricacies of NBA defence and more able to handle the speed of the game. He was the best big man in the 22-team event — even if he was playing against marginal NBA talent — but remains a work in progress.

But there was no regression, he was better than he had been at the end of last season.

“We’re still working on the fouls, obviously, and moving his feet but that’s all progress in the summer,” said the general manager. “We’re going to touch (base) with him a few more times this summer, even when he’s with his (Lithuanian) national team.

“He made good progress. He’s an ever-willing kid to learn, plays hard and it’s not very easy to find that in big guys.”

And if the summer is about getting repetitions for the players who will actually have roles in the next season, the Raptors did what they had to with Ross and Acy.

Ross, who had a so-so rookie season where he looked confident and confused in almost equal parts, didn’t shine at summer league but he didn’t look lost. The coaching staff remains convinced he has something to provide as an NBA regular but there’s also work to be done.

Having five summer league games and daily practices — and that’s where the work truly is done — was important, even if the results were spotty.

“I think we’re excited about teaching him the game, seeing where it goes from there,” Ujiri said. “He’s obviously very athletic, he’s got good shooting ability. I feel he needs to attack the rim a little bit more, get to the free throw line.

“I think it was a good experience just to see him play games and he’s one of those types of players that will probably get better, maybe, playing with even better players.”

Acy remains the true conundrum.

Valanciunas and Ross are set in their positions if they develop — the 7-foot Lithuanian in a prototypical centre, Ross is a shooting guard — but Acy is in that nebulous spot of being a bit small to be a power forward and a bit limited to be a small forward.

It’ll be up to coach Dwane Casey to find him a role, it’ll be up to the second year Acy to work on a different skillset. The summer league and practices were simply a chance to start the process.

“He’s another tough-nosed guy,” Ujiri said of Acy. “I know we have a couple of those already in Amir Johnson and Tyler (Hansbrough) now (so) it’s tough. He’ll possibly learn how to guard a couple of positions, the three and at the four, maybe bigger threes.

“We thought he did well, he’s trying to stretch a little bit and that’ll take a while . . . but he made good progress and his work ethic is unbelievable.”

And now?

There are a couple of minor housekeeping issues to deal with like finalizing the coaching staff and trying to figure out a way to either buy out or move Quentin Richardson.

But Ujiri made it clear it’s going to be more quiet than hectic between now and the opening of training camp in October.

“We might be looking for another wing, we’ll see how it goes,” the general manager said. “It might be something we do this summer or wait to training camp and invite a couple of young guys and give them a shot, see what happens.

“We’re still working on trying to figure a couple of more spots for the roster.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.